Thermal insulating material



Patented May 19, 1925.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JUSTIN KAY TOLIS, OF BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN HAIR FELT OOQA CORPORATION OF DELAWARE.

THERMAL INSULATING MATERIAL.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JUSTIN K. Tonns, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Berkeley, county of Alameda, and State of California, have invented a certain new and useful Thermal Insulating Material, of which the following is a specification.

The invention relates to a new composition of matter adapted for use as a thermal insulation material and for other purposes.

An object of the invention is to provide a tough, flexible, relatively inexpensive material which is particularly adaptable for use as a thermal insulation.

A further object of the invention is to provide a thermal insulation material which is provided with means for mechanically binding it to hair felt or other felts.

The invention possesses other advantageous features, some of which, with the foregoing, will be set forth at length in the following description where I shall outlline in full the preferred form of the material of my invention.

The material of my invention is'a composition of lignose cereal fibers, moss or bagasse, and hair mixedtogether in proper proportions and made substantially homogeneous. The ligno-cellulose material, such as wheat, barley, oat, rice, bean or pea, straw and preferably rice straw, bagasse or moss, is first treated to reduce it to a fibrous condition. This is accomplished by boiling the material for a sufiicient time in weak caustic solution until it is reduced to a suitable consistency, then passing the mass through squeeze-rollers to remove the excess liquor and then beating the cooked mass sothat the fibers are completely separated.

The hair, preferably cow hair, is first boiled in a soap solution to free it from impurities, is then passed through squeezerollers and is fed inthe proper proportion into the beaters through which the lignose fiber is passing and becomes intimately mixed with. the fibers. The compound product is then continued over a series of beaters or is otherwise conducted to a vat containing a suitable waterproofing solution, which invests the hair and both invests and impregnates the fibres. The mass is then passed through s ueeze-rollers and through a fixing bath whic fixes the waterproofing solution Applicat on filed. January 27, 1923. Serial No. 615,390.

and finishes the coating of the hair and the impregnation and oxidation of the fibers. From this bath the material passes through squeeze-rollers and out on drapers in sheets for drying. The sheets thus formed have projecting from their surfaces large numbers of hairs which are anchored in the fiber sheets and these hairs form tentacles for mechanically binding hair or, other felt to the material.

A hair felt insulating material consists ordinarily of an outer envelope of tough heavy paper enclosing the hair felt filler and the envelope is quilted or sewed together in many parallel rows to hold the envelope and filler together and to prevent the filler from shifting in the envelope. In making hair felt insulating material employing the material of my invention for the envelope, the necessity of quilting is obviated, since the projecting hairs in the material become entangled and connected with the hair felt, thereby binding the envelope and the felt together. The envelope, with the intermediate hair felt, is passed between pressure rolls and the pressure is sufficient to cause the parts to bind together. The resultant product when dry is a strong, flexible, highly efficient, thermal insulation which may be advantageously used as alining for houses, cold-storage plants, refrigerator cars and the like.

I claim:

1. The herein described thermal insulating material comprising a waterproofed mixture of fiberized ligno cellulose material and hair, the hair being partly embedded in the fiberized material and partly projecting therefrom.

2. The hereindescribed material comprising an envelope of fiberized ligno-cellulose material and hair and a filler of hair felt.

3. The hereindescribed material comprising an envelope of fiberized ligno-cellulose material and hair, the hair being partly embedded in the fiberized material and partly projecting therefrom and a filler of hair felt with which the projecting hairs are entangled.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my r n.-

. USTIN KAY TOLES. 

